WWDC

For the first time in the event’s history, Apple’s annual conference for developers is sold out. For the Apple faithful anxiously awaiting the opening of this year’s event, time has almost come to a stop. The release of iPhone 2.0 may be only days away, and each tick of the clock and every new announcement about the pending release of the 3G iPhone has millions of the world’s citizens waiting impatiently for the conference’s keynote address.

The Worldwide Developers Conference convenes about a week after ATPM’s press time. By the end of June, the cell phone industry may be changed forever. Until the opening of the WWDC and its fateful keynote address, many of us will watch the clock one long tick at a time.

Time Machine

If there’s one feature of Leopard that beguiles and intrigues avid Mac users, it’s Time Machine. This backup solution both frustrates and interests those of us who are organizationally challenged and knowingly in need of a means to store our digital stuff. It’s brought the term “sparsebundle” into conversation and brought a form of digital file management rather reluctantly into our lives. Storage space “below the cloud” has its physical limits. Although digital triage has its benefits (How many different versions of our latest home movie epic do we really need to store?) hard choices await those of us who wish to bring order to a digital space with physical storage constraints. Western Digital, a previously lesser-known maker of hard drives, has become the prestige brand of choice for an emerging class of storage space connoisseurs.

Time Capsule

If you read Tom Bridge’s review of Time Capsule in this month’s issue, you might wonder if Apple’s wireless backup solution is really two unrelated products melded into one. As a wireless base station it “shines the Apple,” but as a digital storage solution it may leave some wondering what the company has done. The author of this column is successfully using Time Capsule to backup a home full of Macs, but outcomes apparently vary wildly by user and circumstance.

Time Travel

Apple’s latest iteration of its iApps suite comes bundled in an attractively priced iLife ’08 package. It allows users to present past events and future hopes on screen, on the Web, and in print. It’s a potent portfolio of products that should be heralded for both its simplicity and its power to promote self-expression. It’s also a key selling feature in the Mac’s consumer resurgence. Messing with time is an ages-old human desire, and Apple’s consumer products are delighting the hearts and inspiring the minds of millions of new users. It’s no wonder Apple is close to regaining the PC sales crown in the K-12 market and makes the laptop of choice for millions of college students. Time waits for no one. But helping users capture the past and inspiring hope for the future have made the company the most potent force in the design and delivery of personal computing products.

Timetable

By most accounts Windows Vista is a bust. It’s helped create demand for Macs at a level unseen in Apple’s history. The much anticipated 3G iPhone is scheduled for a global rollout including release in territories that before now that had not seen an Apple product other than the popular iPod, and even then in numbers that evidenced scarcity more than ubiquity.

It won’t be long before Apple competitors such as RIM, Nokia, HP, and even Microsoft seek to take back lost ground. There are timetables for tides and time windows for opportunity. Microsoft is already hyping its Vista replacement, and cell phones that mimic the iPhone will soon be in release. Will Apple make the most of its technology advantages or will time prove to be a foe rather than a friend? ATPM will cover this story in the months ahead.

The Time Has Come

Thank you for being with us this month. The time has come to explore our June issue. Each month ATPM chronicles the “personal computing experience” in a unique, informative, and entertaining way. Enjoy the June issue. We’ll see you again in July.

Our June issue includes:

MacMuser: Mac to My Back

Sweet escape—Back to My Mac and .Mac facilitate out of office experiences.

MacMuser: 10.5.3 and Time Machine

Time goes by so slowly, sometimes. Though the latest Mac OS X update might kink the space-time continuum, nothing is seriously warped.

Next Actions: Master List

Ed Eubanks Jr. returns with the second installment of applications for Getting Things Done.

Segments: Apple Versus Dell

Breaking the molds—in the combination of business and technology, one size does not fit all.

How To: Find the Right NAS Drive

A Network Attached Storage device could be of immense benefit to multiple-computer households, or even just one computer that operates untethered on Wi-Fi most of the time. Sylvester Roque discusses the “it factors” for choosing a NAS device.

How To: How a Programmer Works With a Non-Programming Project

Charles Ross offers glimpses into the secret life of programmers and demonstrates the benefits of programming for novices.

Desktop Pictures: Boston

Reader Rob Colonna provides this month’s photos taken in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cartoon: Cortland

“Wieser Graphics is history” as Lisa launches her final assault. Could this spell the end for Cortland and friends?

Review: Aluminum V2

The perfect hard case for your U2 Special Edition iPod, four years too late.

Review: Escape the Museum

The combination of adventure and hidden object levels provide hours of entertainment. Some objects are unfairly hidden, but help is freely available.

Review: OptiBay Hard Drive

Nice, but not super, Frank Wu reveals the reality behind the OptiBay drive’s marketing.

Review: TapeDeck 1.0

TapeDeck rekindles the joy of cassette recording to simplify the process of getting your audio to iTunes or compressed for e-mail. Whatever you choose to record, it’ll be really, really easy to do.

Review: Time Capsule (1 TB)

Good NAS, good Base Station, crappy Time Machine.